Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Why do we do it?

My poor old doggie-boy Jeb has not been doing so well the past week.

It started late last Fri night about midnight we a loud crash of the pantry doors and woke to find Jeb crumpled and dazed in the hallway. He was acting so weird, I thought maybe he'd had a stroke. We watched him over the weekend and he was dragging his rear legs a lot and acting strange, barking at stuff and just not himself. On Tuesday I took him straight to Dr. Malakooti. I was really thinking he was going to be euthanized that day. Dr. M said he didn't think it was a stroke, but a spinal injury of some sort. We left him there that day for xrays. When we picked him up Dr. said basically he's had a horrible spine with years of fractures and fusions and that he had many badly damaged vertebrae, crushed and no longer existent discs and an injured cord. He said he didn't know how he was walking and doing what he was doing based on the xrays. So we brought him home with a TON of meds and he has to be kept on bed rest. Anytime he gets up, I have to support him underneath with a sling made from a towel.Dr. said it's basically just keep him comfortable and wait, he's like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and at that point there won't be anything else to do. ~UGHWe had some trouble with the tranquilizers that we were giving and yesterday, I truly thought he was dying before my eyes. Plus he had a couple poop and pee accidents in the house too. I think he can't always tell when it's time anymore. I have been keeping him on the tile in case. Today he seems just a tiny bit better, I'm not getting too optimistic though. It sort of seems to come in waves, for a little while he is more like himself, then later he is moaning or panting heavily. It's been an emotional roller coaster of sleepless nights and tired days. I told Pat I feel like I'm back working at the nursing home, heavy lifting and poor prognosis.

So with all this emotional awfulness, why do we do it? Why did we 'rescue' this dog? Because for 7 wonderful years this dog has been my fuzzy child. Always happy to greet us when we come home. He loves to play tug of war and wrestle and Pat can get him to groan something that sounds way to much like "ma-ma" when he wants your attention. He curled up beside me so many nights over these years when Pat was deployed and stood watch on nights the kids were sick. He is a perfect alarm clock for 7 am and 5 pm (feeding times). It sucks having to go through this again (we've lost 2 other boxers to awful illnesses over the years), but he deserves the best care we can give him until it just doesn't work anymore.